Blended Component Unit – Although legally separate, Elizabeth City
State University Foundation, Inc., and Subsidiary (Foundation), a
component unit of the University, is reported as if it were part of the
University.
The accompanying financial statements present all funds belonging to the
University and its component unit. While the Board of Governors of the
Foundation is governed by a 25-member board consisting of the
Chancellor, 12 ex officio directors appointed by the Chancellor and
12 elected directors. The Foundation’s purpose is to aid, support, and
promote teaching, research, and service in the various educational,
scientific, scholarly, professional, artistic, and creative endeavors of the
University. Because the elected directors of the Foundation are selected
by the members appointed by the Chancellor and the Foundation’s sole
purpose is to benefit Elizabeth City State University, its financial
statements have been blended with those of the University.

Separate financial statements for the Foundation may be obtained from
the University Controller’s Office, 1704 Weeksville Road, Elizabeth City,
NC 27909, or by calling 252-335-3211. Other related foundations and
19
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)
similar nonprofit corporations for which the University is not financially
accountable are not part of the accompanying financial statements.

The spreadsheets for the UNC System Foundations consist of financials that
were discretely presented from the respective University financials. This
is due to the foundations being legally separate, private not-for-profit
corporations which reported their results under FASB. The respective
Universities did not modify those financials to correlate with university
financials reported under GASB.

The ECSU Foundation was not omitted so to speak. The reporting for this
foundation was blended in with the reporting of Elizabeth City State
University’s financials. This is included in the other spreadsheet that
contains university reporting only. The nature and relationship of the
ECSU Foundation is different from the private not-for-profit corporations.
In this case, ECSU’s Chancellor helped select this foundation’s elected
directors and the sole purpose of this foundation is to benefit ECSU, its
reporting was included with ECSU’s reporting. The other NC Universities
have similar reporting situations as ECSU.

Does this answer your question or did you have more of a comment to make?

ECSU reporting is not an outlier. FSU, NCCU, NCSSM,NCSU, UNCC,
UNCCH, UNCSA, UNCW, WCU, had identical reasons as ECSU for reporting
foundations discretely and blended. Blended because the university had a
hand in picking the foundation’s officers, discretely because the
university did not have as close a relationship and the foundation used
FASB. For the remaining universities, it was either discretely or blended.
But for the same reasoning the other universities that had both(picking
officers, using FASB/lesser relationship). ASU, NC&AT, ECU, UNCA, UNCP,
WSSU had discretely only, and UNCG and UNC-GA had blended only.

IN the past I have audited the ECSU Foundation, so I knew that pursuance to FASB/GASB standards, the financials were blended. Perhaps you should seek out a financial expert, like a CPA, to explain to you how to break them out. And if so many foundations were omitted, what was the purpose of the piece?

Michael – the purpose of the piece is to provide data that was not included in the other financials post. Greater transparency is another goal. My office has a full accounting staff, however, better presentation of numbers should be accomplished by GA and the campuses. I was appalled to find that no campus by campus or detailed financials were being produced. So we prepared the spreadsheets ourselves. Have you reviewed the spreadsheets and did you find any comparative numbers interesting? What accounting courses do you teach at ECSU?